Roman Aqueduct Bridge of Cirta

Aquaeductus Cirtae

AqueductNumidia · Constantine, AlgeriaBuilt 150 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

Roman engineers carried water into Cirta from the spring at Ain Bou Merzoug, crossing the 200-meter-deep Rhumel gorge on a masonry bridge whose fragmentary arches still stand in the valley below the old town. No inscription records its exact building year, and estimates for its date range across the 2nd century CE. Because the construction date cannot be pinned down with confidence, this entry is flagged as not yet standing at the 117 CE snapshot.

What happened here

Water arrives day and night and never stops. The channel runs mostly underground, following a shallow gradient measured out with a levelling instrument over tens of miles, and it goes up on arches only where the ground drops away. Inspection shafts sit at intervals; gangs work the line constantly, cutting out the lime crust that thickens on the walls and narrows the flow. At the town end the water is divided in a distribution tank — public fountains first by law, then baths, then private houses whose owners have paid for a pipe of a fixed and stamped size. Illegal tappings are a permanent scandal. What arrives is not stored but runs continuously, and the overflow flushes the drains.